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Norbar Sponsors Bloodhound Land Speed Record Bid

Banbury based Norbar Torque Tools has joined the wide ranging list of specialist companies, educational and professional organisations supplying products, services and expertise to the Bloodhound SSC (Super Sonic Car) project, that aims to push the world land speed record to an incredible 1,000 mph. At a time of resurgent interest in UK engineering, Bloodhound acts as an exciting focus for British experience in this area and an inspiration for young people considering a career in this absorbing field.

Norbar is a family run company and a world leading specialist in the design, development and production of torque tightening and measuring equipment. There are Norbar sales companies in Australia, China, India, New Zealand, Singapore and the USA, but manufacturing is carried out solely in Banbury, where Norbar has been established since the 1940s. As a Product Sponsor for the Bloodhound SSC project,

Norbar is supplying a range of torque wrenches, measurement equipment and their consultancy expertise in ultrasonic bolt testing.

Philip Brodey, Norbar’s Sales & Marketing Director, emphasised the vital importance of setting accurate torque to fastenings on a vehicle that would be subjected to exceptional stresses induced by speeds well beyond the sound barrier. “This is an ambitious and adventurous project that is a great way to advance and promote technology. There are likely to be useful practical spin-offs as well as an increased public awareness about how engineering can be an enduring passion as well as a rewarding profession.”

The 7.5 tonne Bloodhound SSC is jet and rocket propelled and capable of accelerating from 0-1,000 mph and back again to zero in just 100 seconds. Its jet and rocket engines generate a thrust of 47,000 lbs, the equivalent of 180 F1 cars. Pressures impacting on the vehicle include 30 tonne suspension loadings and air pressures of up to 10 tonnes per square metre.

Bloodhound SSC will be driven for this record breaking bid by Andy Green, who set the existing land speed record of 763 mph driving Thrust SCC in 1997. The new land speed record attempt will take place in 2013 in the Northern Cape desert region of South Africa, along a track 19km long by 500m wide, which required 10 million square metres of desert to be cleared by hand of rocks and other obstacles. Further information about the project and its history can be found at www.bloodhoundssc.com.